Did Apollo 13 happen the way it did in the movie?

Question

it's 1 of my fav. movies! was it that dramatic, do you remember it?

who are those people at the command center or what is it called, those people at houston (u kno, houston we have a problem)? what do they do? they're awesome

It's too hard to choose best answer! You all have great answers, thanks! ♥

xoxo

Answer 1

Very accurate, including the bit of the condensation dripping in their faces during re-entry. The condensation was caused because the command module got so cold when it had been powered down.

I lived through it, and was a real space-geek at the time, and remember many of the details; was very impressed that so much was done right. Mission control in Houston was that big room where Gene Krantz (in the white vest) was the flight director. The Mission Control set was EXACTLY like the real thing, right down to the data on the monitors.

Each person in the main control room was responsible for one aspect of the spacecraft systems: flight dynamics ("fido"); guidance ("guido"); main rocket engines ("booster"); re-entry ("retro"); thrusters ("RCS" for reaction control system; you hear "CMRCS" and "LMRCS" in the dialog, for the Command Module and Lunar Module components); flight surgeon; and so forth. Each of these guys was on a second communications loop to a bunch of other guys in rooms we don't see in the movie. For example, there was a whole room full of guys who knew all the guidance subsystems inside and out. Those guys were all on one comm loop with "guido" in the main control room, and "guido" was also on the main comm loop with "flight" (the flight director, Krantz).

The rule is that one and only one person is allowed to talk to the astronauts in flight. That guy is another astronaut chosen for the purpose, called "capcom" (capsule comminicator) who is also in the main control room. That's why it's such surprise when Deke Slayton gets on the capcom loop and talks to the astronauts directly. They realize it's a very big deal to break that rule.

The losing their temper thing was dramatic license, these guys were picked because they were the coolest customers imaginable. And there were a couple of mid-course corrections that they did not show.

One other thing not quite true: during the no-computer, guidance-by-eye burn, the direction of the thrust vector (where the rocket motor was pointing) was NOT towards Earth, but 90° away.

Answer 2

It was reasonably close.... there were even more problems that they didn't elaborate on, and at the same time, there were some dramatics (like the argument amongst the astronauts in the movie) that didn't really happen.

Houston, the Mission Operations Control Room (MOCR) are the controllers for the astronauts. They know more about the ship than the astronauts do, and basically the guys in the capsule just do as they say. A lot of credit was given to Jim Lovell (Tom Hanks) in the movie, when in truth, the controllers came up with the ideas (like using the Earth as a reference point when they couldn't see stars through the debris).

The real hero for Apollo 13 was a fellow named John Aaron. You see him in the movie, working the simulator with Gary Sinise, but he was the Electrical guy. He plotted the start-up of the command module, and really got 'em back home. (During the flight of Apollo 12, it was struck by lightning twice on the way up - and lost all electrical feeds... John Aaron recognized how a screen looked, and instead of aborting the flight, told them to flip a switch to reset the screens - it worked.)

Answer 3

I think the film was pretty accurate. I have a feeling they kind of overdid it with the water droplets on all the consoles that were supposed to show the condensation -- but maybe I'm wrong.

I had a mission report (I gave it to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas) that gave all the details on the entire flight. I remember the graphs showing the battery power remaining in the command module's system just before reentry -- it was nearly down to zero! Those guys just barely made it back! (And that manual really went into detail -- at the end there was even a report that their nasal spray bottle wouldn't work in zero g! It supposedly worked again once it got back on earth.)

I remember the actual coverage of the flight as it happened, too. All I remember about that was the business of them having to make the CO2 scrubbing system adapter out of duct tape and junk so the lunar module could power the thing. That was another close call.

Answer 4

I was too young to remember the actual event, but I'd assume it was actually even more dramatic than in the movie, minus 40% of all the catchy dialog.

Houston is the command center and where all the communications are tied together in Johnson space center
http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=29.557588&lon=-95.090591&z=16.2&r=352&src=ggl
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/johnson/home/index.html
also used for training,
a museum http://www.spacecenter.org/
planning, some building, and alot of design.
(my grandfather worked for NASA in Houston and was an electrical engineer /designer on many of the rockets)

to my knowledge most of the larger parts for the ships where built in Huntsville Alabama.
some smaller parts where made in Houston.


launches and landings take place in Cape Canaveral Florida at the Kennedy Space Center.
I think some landings might be in Arizona too.
I do know that many international places are set up for emergency shuttle landings.

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=28.606894&lon=-80.664271&z=13.4&r=352&src=ggl
http://www.nasa.gov/centers/kennedy/home/index.html

Answer 5

Yes, the movie is as close as possible to the reality. Some scenes were even filmed in parabolic flight aircraft in order to simulate true zero-gravity.
The people at the command center were employees of CSC and not NASA, as most would think. I got that from my son who worked for CSC a few years.

Answer 6

pretty much of what happens in the film happened in real life apart from a couple a bits of 'artistic license' the people in houston were engineers,other astronauts and 'flight' directors. if you like apollo 13 then you really should buy 'from the earth to the moon' tv series. this is my pet subject so if you want to e-mail me about anything to do with the 60's/70's space program then by all means, do so cos i could go on about this stuff all day. i bore my freinds stupid with it all and they try and wind me up by saying it was all faked grrr!

Answer 7

It was a very good dramatization of what happened. I've seen several PBS documentaries on the actual event, and read many articles, and they line up quite nicely with the "factual" parts of the movie.

Of course, the interpersonal dialogue is conjecture and recollection, which is always suspect. But that happens in any "dramatization" process.

Answer 8

From what I remember at the time and what I saw later the movie is pretty accurate. I can tell you that people round the world were praying for those men.

Answer 9

Pretty much the way I remember--------- ESPECIALLY the part when the engineers had to figure out how to get a round tube into a square hole with only the items the astronauts had on board!------------ to get the CO2 filter working.

AND-------- everyone EVERYWHERE was shocked when they finally saw the explosion damage on the service module---- the entire side had been blown away!

Answer 10

Then watch the movie. The very short synopsis is that a crew of US astronauts are sent to the moon, but their ship has near catastrophoc failure, so they take parts from the lander to survive, buy have to jerry rig them to work.